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Coinone CEO : No Ban On Cryptocurrency Trading In South Korea Yet

The South Korean government has officially announced this morning that there will be no cryptocurrency trading ban in the near term , and this news was also confirmed by the CEO of Coinone, the third largest virtual currency exchange in that country.

On Thursday, two blockbuster reports ——South Korea’s justice ministry planed to shut down cryptocurrency trading through local exchanges and two exchanges, Bithumb and Coinone，were raided by police and tax officials——went viral, which wiped billions off the global cryptocurrency market as panic selling ensues.

However, the government offered an announcement after a powerful backlash and criticism against those related departments’ seemingly thoughtless regulatory moves. The Blue House, the executive office of the South Korean head of state, has announced that there will be no cryptocurrency trading ban to be in sight, according to Cointelegraph.

In fact, the Ministry of Justice’s planning to clamp down bitcoin exchanges has not endorsed by other government agencies involved in the South Korean cryptocurrency regulation task force.That is, the banning of cyrpto market in South Korea has not finalized yet.

A screenshot of the CEO of Coinone appeared on Sina Weibo, the Chinese micro-blogging platform, in which he confirmed that it is not the done deal to suspend bitcoin trading in South Korea. He wrote, although the Ministry of Justice claimed that the department was preparing a bill to shut down all cryptocurrency exchanges, it was not a done deal yet which required further discussions among various government agencies;and Coinone was indeed investigated by tax officials, but it was limited to corporation tax and value-added tax（VAT）review ,nothing unusual.

As for the fact that the police raided the exchange due to its involvement in gambling and a breach of the Capital Markets Act, the person in charge clarified that the exchange has already put an end to leveraged-up margin trading,the kind of service from concerns of financial authorities, and is able to stand any sorts of investigation.He emphasized that he himself was not affected by this investigation.

“It seems a big fuss made by the media, and actually, there is nothing to be worried about. I am so happy to see the cryptocurrency industry is getting bigger.” the Seoul-based operator of one of the world’s busiest bitcoin exchanges said.

South Korea’s strengthened control of cryptocurrency trading also rattles Chinese bitcoiners. The Chinese government ordered to close all domestic bitcoin exchanges in September and South Korea intends to follow suit this time.Thus, the majority of Chinsese investors has become inured to such regulatory news, and 20% plunge seems not worth mentioning to them.They thought it was time to buy in. But some crypto newbies got scared by steep drop in nearly all virtual coins they track, dubbing it as a thrilled game.

Since no done deal over cryptocurrency trading put forward by the South Korean government, investors should always stay alert for the policy risks.